HHS Sophomores Advance to the National 2015 DECA Stock Market Game

Harrison High School sophomores Jordan Canell and Nicholas Bilotta were finalists in the North Atlantic region of the 2014-2015 DECA Stock Market Game and will now travel to Orlando, Florida to compete in the national Stock Market Game at the 2015 DECA International Career Development Conference at the end of April. The two, who finished 10th in their region, will compete among roughly 70 teams from all over the country and Canada and will defend their investment decisions.

For this competition, students could work in two or three member teams and had the opportunity to develop and manage an investment portfolio over a four month period from September through December that operated off the activities of the New York Stock Exchange. Jordan and Nick chose to concentrate the majority of stock they traded into two categories – Apple and Airlines.

“We based many of our investments on momentum, meaning the stock had been doing well prior to the time of purchase and was projected to continue to perform,” Nick said. “We traded Apple stock many times throughout the competition, especially during the holiday season. We also purchased Apple stock around the time of the iPhone 6/6 plus release and the announcement of the iWatch as we knew this would be a popular buy for holiday consumers.”

The two also concentrated their strategic efforts into the airline stocks of American Airlines and Delta based on fluctuating commodity prices.

“The purchase of these stocks was made as we noticed a decrease in the price of oil,” said Nick. “Changes in other markets such as the decrease in the price of oil typically result in cheaper flights and greater sales by the airlines and an increase in stock prices.”

At the beginning of the competition, student teams were given a fictitious $100,000 with which to invest. The Stock Market Game is conducted via the Internet and each participating team manages all aspects of the portfolio, including stock selection, buying, and selling. By the end of the four month period, Nick and Jordan’s portfolio was worth $115,893.34.

“We do not consider the actions we took to be investing, as the Stock Market Game did not take place over a long period of time,” said Jordan. “Rather we consider the action we took to be “trading”, as this term pertains to buying and selling stock over short periods of time. The Stock Market Game was a great experience and with nationals soon approaching, we will be working hard on our presentation.”